When I sit to think about the incredible things I did this year, it’s a little overwhelming; but at the same time, I’m proud of that.

Hello Work-Life Peru

Actually I arrived to Peru in November, 2018; but on January 7th, finally I got an amazing role as a Data Engineer at Indra; one of the biggest consulting companies of the world.

This was a big achievement for myself and my family, because this proved my point: “If you define your goals and make a plan to get them, you will get them.”

It was very difficult to me because: first, I’m an immigrant from another country, and in many companies out there, you are tagged, even without talking to you are not qualified for the job, because you are an immigrant.

Fortunately, Indra is not one of these companies. The day I interviewed with Indra, my future manager at that time said to me: “I just need someone who wants to work and to learn. Someone that is not afraid to fail, someone who wants to do the best job of his life. It doesn’t matter if you are Peruvian or not for me, if you are that guy, I want you on my team”.

We had a great discussion that day, and then, they gave the big news: “You are in.”

I believe I can’t thank enough to this team. They teach me a lot of things in that time I was part of Indra's team inside RIMAC Seguros. We built incredible things together there on top of Amazon Web Services, and I strongly believe that this team is one of the best I’ve ever worked with in my entire life.

So, thank you, Cesar and the whole Data Lake crew for giving me the opportunity to be part of this outstanding crew. I will never forget the opportunity you gave me. Never.

And a big thank you to the “Channels Army”: It was a big pleasure to work with you guys, and I know that our paths will cross again Gianmar, Paola, Patty, Sarita, Miguel, Luis, Richard. The best of luck for you.

Farewell Indra, Hello Intercorp

Then, in September; I had the opportunity to build something from scratch in one of the biggest conglomerates of the country. It was a tough call because the team was very new and they were just creating the office when I was to work.

I chatted with my wife about this because this new opportunity presented a bigger growth and learning experience for myself. Thank you, baby.

I discussed with Iván about what he wanted to achieve with the Data Office, and we chatted for about an hour about this. After this conversation, I already knew I wanted to be part of the team.

It was a difficult time because I loved what I was working with the “Channels Army” at RIMAC. But after several conversations with them, they convinced me to pursue this unique opportunity with Intercorp.

Then, I officially entered at Intercorp Management on September 4th, and I have to say it: It’s simply amazing to get inside a room with Data Scientists, BizOps people and Data Engineering folks (that’s my role) when 80% of the time you don’t understand what they are talking about.

This presents an amazing opportunity to learn more about this, and how we could actually apply Data Science in the diverse business units inside Intercorp.

Let’s work for a better 2020 together.

Opportunities are Everywhere, You just have to Know Where to Look

The last four months of the year were incredible. I enjoy my work as a Data Engineer at Intercorp, but I believe in the power of multiple income streams.

So, searching for these opportunities, I did several things:

• I revived my YouTube channel, to help more Hispanic people to find great investments opportunities out there
• Migrated my personal blog from Medium.com to a Ghost based blog hosted on DigitalOcean, and was accepted as an Affiliate Marketer for several brands: FreshBooks, Namecheap, Siteground, ConvertKit and many others
• Signed seasoned partnerships with companies like Divvy (the leading spend and expense management platform for business out of Utah) and CleverTap (a powerful mobile marketing solution that brings together user data from online and offline channels on one centralized platform); to help them to find great clients. A  big thank you to Trent and Ankur for the confidence

My Unconventional Entrance to the Venture Capital world

But I believe that one of the biggest achievements I got this year was to be accepted as an Indie.vc Scout. Bryce and his crew at Indie.vc have built a different kind of Venture Capital firm, where they encourage to the founders full ownership and built real and profitable ventures:

The idea is to help Indie.vc to find more incredible entrepreneurs out there, wherever they are in the world; and to dot that the firm has built an incredible network of Scouts.

I was skeptical to apply because I’m not based in the U.S; but we live in times of actions, not words. I said: “What the hell? I lose nothing with applying. '' And I did it.

Fortunately, Bryce cares about the network and the quality of deals, not about your location, and in November 26th, I was officially accepted as a Scout.

My motto as an Indie.vc Scout is:

Yes, I will be paid for this work, but I want to do more. So, when someone contacts me on Twitter (the majority of the deals has come in that way) about an introduction to Indie; I always try to do more than that: I shared their work, I give my honest feedback about the platform and the business opportunity and try to connect them with the right people for their ventures.

I just want to think as an actual investor in a company, so if can support them with capital, I can help them with my network. Who knows !!! This could be an opportunity to find a new client, a new partner, etc.BWT, my role models as Venture Capital firms are five: Indie.vc, Emergence Capital, Ridge Ventures, Founder Collective and Union Square Ventures. Why?

Because they always try to do what is right for the company they are investing in.

So, if you want Indie.vc involved in your company, just let me on Twitter or to my email. I will be more than happy to get you an introduction.

Conclusions

2019 was an incredible year, but I know that the next decade will be even better. I’m excited waiting for the next year. My message to all of you:

Happy New Decade for Everyone